Sunday, 18 March 2012

Crust Pizza -upmarket for the masses

Last night after visiting my family we got home too late to have any energy to get dinner together. Instead we ordered pizza and watched the Sound of Music. I am very fussy about ordering pizza. Most places have a very boring choice for vegetarians and other takeawaypizzas that I love aren't near enough to order home delivery. So I was excited when Crust Pizza opened up in our vicinity with a range of vegetarian options.

Our experience with Crust Pizza began a year ago when we did some kitchen renovations. We weren't able to cook much so we had more takeaway than usual. Actually we might have even had one of their pizzas before that because I have a note and vague memories of an eggplant pizza but no photos and it is no longer on the Crust menu. However I can tell you about a few other veg pizzas that I have recorded.

The first pizza is the Margherita. An oldie but a goodie. It is topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and oregano. This is Sylvia's pizza of choice. She loves it because it is so plain whereas I have shunned it in the past because it is so plain. More recently I am coming to appreciate it. The cheese is crisp on top with the soft flavoursome sauce beneath. I have noticed that you can also buy a smaller kiddie pizza with tomato and cheese which we might try another time.

Perhaps our different attitudes also come from our attitude to tomatoes. I hated them as a child but gradually have come to appreciate them as an adult. Sylvia loves tomatoes and will even sometimes eat them as a snack if I leave a bowl of cherry tomatoes about. When we watched the Sound of Music last night, she kept talking about the scene where Maria throws a tomato to Gretel who drops it. Does anyone else ever remember this scene! But I digress.

Next is the Sweet potato pizza. Described in the menu as roasted sweet potato, roasted capsicum, spanish onions, toasted pine nuts, cherry tomatoes and; gorgonzola on a tomato base, garnished with fresh herbs, cracked pepper and sea salt. I liked it but didn't love it. Not quite my sort of vegetable combination. Not enough green. The salt and pepper on the side seemed like a gimmick.

On the positive side, the toppings are generous and the crusts are nicely cooked. My favourite part was the little white table that kept the top of the box from pressing on the pizza. Isn't it cute? It looks like a little table in a doll's house and makes me want to make doll's house furniture.

The pizza I had last night was not quite right either. I actually liked the Vegetarian Supreme pizza - grilled eggplant, marinated artichokes, baby spinach, roasted capsicum, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and bocconcini on a tomato base. I just did not like the pesto aioli that was generously drizzled over the pizza. It looked pretty but I only like mayonnaise in small doses.

One of the things I love about Crust is that there is an option to create your own pizza. It takes a little energy, which is not really what takeaway is about. But it means you can choose a wholemeal or gluten free base or just more vegetables. I have only done this once. I had a wholemeal base with pumpkin sauce, spinach, cherry tomatoes, basil, asparagus and mozzarella. It was great because I ordered exactly what I wanted. The asparagus didn't quite work and I now can't see pumpkin sauce on their menu so I am unlikely to have this again.

There are a few other options I would like to try - the Florentine Ricotta, the healthy Baby Spinach pizza and the vegie calzone. However their menu does seem to change occasionally. The pizzas are not cheap ($16 for a large pizza) and they do not come in a small size, unless you buy the kiddie pizzas. So Crust is a good choice for a treat but will not become a regular meal in our house.

20 comments:

Johanna, this is so funny - we have been meaning to try Crust Pizza for ages, since it opened about a 15 minute walk from us. We haven't got to it yet but have scheduled it in for this evening! I'm now thinking I may want to go for the 'create your own' approach but haven't pondered the menu in detail yet. I'll certainly be keeping your experiences in mind when I do :)

We need to get one of those in Edinburgh!! Shame you weren't so keen on the Sweet Potato Pizza as that seems delish, and I actually really like the idea of the salt and pepper on the side so you can add it to your taste, so many take away places over here totally overload their food with salt and pepper so I like the choice being offered now ;0)

Thanks Chele - actually it is ages since I had the sweet potato pizza so I was surprised that my notes said it didn't have enough veg for me - in retrospect it looks v good - though I don't think I bothered with salt and pepper and I have them here at home anyway

How funny that you blogged Crust just now, as we ordered some in on Friday night! We had the mushroom pizza, which we liked, and a pear/walnut/gorgonzola/rocket salad that I wouldn't order again. It really is for the laziest of lazy nights! It didn't even occur to me to choose my own topping set, I must do that next time (which will occur in 6-12 months, most likely).

Thanks Cindy - how freaky - we don't get takeaway very often - there is usually vegies in the fridge to be used or a really quick tin of baked beans in the pantry so it is hard to justify the time and money

Wow this sounds like an amazing pizza place. I've never seen pumpkin sauce on a pizza menu before!! Too bad not all the pizzas you tried were good. I've never been a big fan of the margherita pizza either.

I can't imagine not eating tomatoes--they are such a big part of my diet! Glad you've come round to appreciate them (and even though I've seen Sound of Music maybe 17 times, I don't remember that scene, either). ;) I have to say that all the pizzas look great to me--even the "plain" one!

Thanks Ricki - I am glad to have come around to tomatoes though a plain tomato salad or tomato sandwich is still a bit beyond me - and sounds like you are a sound of music fan - we lost one of our discs tonight which was very upsetting - but found some other things while we searched for it at least

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Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.